5
Problem
My (internal) floppy drive does not work in Windows (neither XP nor 7). That is, when trying to access the A:
drive, nothing occurs, no light, no motor, nothing.
It does however work in DOS, in the BIOS boot-menu, in Windows setup (ie F6 to load drivers), etc.
Symptoms
From command-line:C:\>dir a:\
The device is not ready.
C:\>
From Explorer:
Please insert a disk into A-Floppy (A:).
(Yes, there is a disk in the drive, but that is irrelevant since Windows does not turn the drive on at all. Also, ejecting and putting a disk in the drive does make a sound like the pin falling into place, but that is more mechanical than electrical.)
Test
I tried removing the\DosDevices\A:
and all (four) entries that refer to \??\FDC#…
from HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
. Then I uninstalled the floppy drive and controller and rebooted. Windows detected the drive and installed drivers for it, then told me to format the floppy disk before I can use it, but never actually activated the drive. Clicking Format did nothing.
Search
Not surprisingly, most of the search results simply talk about setting the jumpers on the drive or enabling the drive in the BIOS, but these are all just about getting a drive to work at all, not only in a specific OS (though this page does discuss a floppy drive working in Windows and not in DOS—backwards! and not the first time either).Other Information
One thing of note is that I have a small flash-drive permanently plugged into a USB port on the back that I use to boot DOS without using a floppy or CD. In Windows the flash drive appears as a standard removable drive and is assigned toB:
, but I can’t imagine why that would cause the floppy drive to not work in Windows (especially when it does work in DOS). Of course when I boot from the flash-drive, the floppy drive is B:
and the flash-drive is A:
, but everything else works as normal.
It looks like the Windows drivers don't support your particular floppy drive (which is extremely odd). That's the best I can offer as a direction in which to look. – None – 2012-02-23T23:57:13.283
1
Extremely odd indeed. I’ve removed
– Synetech – 2012-02-24T01:19:58.877\DosDevices\A:
fromHKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
and will see if that helps when I reboot. I’m trying to figure out a way to list devices of the form\??\Volume{GUID}
to remove the other floppy entry fromMountedDevices
as well… (I didn’t note down the data field of the DosDevice first; oops).:-o
Maybe I’ll just have to delete them all and reassign all the letters."uninstalled the floppy drive and controller" from my experience they are just plugged/unplugged. – barlop – 2012-02-24T04:06:29.900
@barlop, “plugged/unplugged”? It’s not a USB drive. – Synetech – 2012-02-24T04:17:41.913
@Synetech I know. Obviously and you know, so I mean you put your hand into the computer and plug/unplug. I don't see it in terms of "uninstalling the drive and controller" as you do so maybe you're doing something more than I've had to. You plug it in and start the computer. Nothing else needed to get it working in DOS or Windows. – barlop – 2012-02-24T04:23:11.063
‽‽‽ I meant uninstalling the drivers in Device Manager. There’s no need to physically mess with it since it works fine outside of Windows. – Synetech – 2012-02-24T04:32:50.880
+1 for wanting to use a floppy drive in Windows 7 – Moab – 2012-02-24T16:45:02.837
@Moab, what am I supposed to do, throw away all those disks I have? But I love those old games! (Though time is the resource holding me back more than hardware.) – Synetech – 2012-02-24T16:55:07.993
@Synetech +1 means I agree and still use a floppy also. You are best to make images of those treasured discs and run them from a virtual floppy drive. – Moab – 2012-02-24T20:49:21.530
1But I’ve got a box with well over 1,000 3½" and 5¼" floppies. Where am I going to store those hundreds of MB?
:-D
– Synetech – 2012-02-24T20:57:37.613I had a problem with it in DOS. Thank you for the link to that site, and sorry it didn't work out ideally. – mwalsher – 2012-03-14T21:44:28.860